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KoDP is more replayable, since it has more writing, randomness and choices, in both dialogue and strategy. On the strategy layer, you interact with many citizens of your village, not just the warriors and make "research" and "resource management" decisions that are not found in TBS (except "rest or don't").

In exposition before and after choices, KoDP slowly describes a thoroughly thought-out fantasy world and Viking-like culture (that was designed before the game... look it up on wikipedia).

There's no tactical combat, but there are a few dialogue choices made for battles.

I haven't played it far enough to reach a win condition, so maybe others here know more.

Kentucky Route Zero and The Wolf Among Us are great story games. I am currently playing newly released Age of Wonders III, which I cannot recommend enough for people who love the TBS Fantasy genre (Heroes of Might and Magic, King's Bounty, Master of Magic). Age of Wonders was always my favourite series and the third game is no disappointment (thank you Notch for helping out with funding development of the game!).

NEO Scavenger had me enthralled for a while and I just finished a playthrough of Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall which is good for the story, although the game mechanics could have been deeper and more enjoyable.

Haha yes I did bump into franknarf yesterday in AErena, under a different username xD We played a few battles before i added him and found out he was franknarf haha

I've been mostly playing AErena, but I am excited for the upcoming Shadowrun Online, which is created by the same company that made AErena. ATM it is in early access and from the looks of it it looks too very early alpha, so I am going to wait and see for a more polished version to come (cant be too sure with Early acess games)...but squad-based games are my favorite!

Do you know when will the game leave the "Early Access" and go full-public? Has the playerbase increased any?

The playerbase increases every 2 months, because they are regularly resetting a new competitive season, so new and old come back. But tbh, not too many people are interested in buying into early access, let alone buying into a free-to-play game xD especially $10 for f2p game. but I gave you, AP and smom a free key worth that $10, so thats not an issue haha

Not sure when it will go public, possibly summer. If you're waiting for a finished good product, I would definitely wait for release, because by then they will have ironed out the bugs and there will be a much bigger population (usually f2p games have huge folllowings in the first few months). That is what I'll be doing for Shadowrun Online. I'm just in it right now for the community, and the devs are the most active, they do patches every few weeks and I play with them on a regular basis lol plus I need a turn-based game to play on my spare time xD

But tbh, not too many people are interested in buying into early access, let alone buying into a free-to-play game xD especially $10 for f2p game. but I gave you, AP and smom a free key worth that $10, so thats not an issue haha

I feel kinda bad about that, but Steam-Punk is not really my thing Comparisons to Factions were also inevitable, without a clear winner (apart from style/theme). The playerbase seems to have its up-and-downs but it is growing -- https://steamcharts.com/app/247830#All . I think that Factions beta would have been similar, right?

I feel kinda bad about that, but Steam-Punk is not really my thing Comparisons to Factions were also inevitable, without a clear winner (apart from style/theme). The playerbase seems to have its up-and-downs but it is growing -- https://steamcharts.com/app/247830#All . I think that Factions beta would have been similar, right?

Haha no worries, a gift is a gift Yeah, I don't know what it is, but there is a huge boost in population for every F2P game that releases on steam xD I think people just like free things. But they are trying to adopt an Leagueoflegends-style model, where everything is free but they release champions regularly so thats how they make money regularly on long-term, on ppl who just like to buy with real currency. I feel like Stoic didn't really make Factions as a money-maker, and if they did, well..imagine the fan uproar xD

As for the Factions beta, I have no clue how the really early stages went, according to our forum join dates, we came around the same time (you being 1 month earlier :P)

In my recollection, the pattern was similar for Factions, going up and down with updates, but the numbers were a lot higher (a few dozen online at any given time and a few hundred early-accessers in the week or two after the final wipe and before the public launch, at which point it actually got on the charts briefly).

The Aerena community is small, but I guess it's big enough for the beta phase. It has at least one person becoming well-known for dominating the competition; writing a guide and discussing design and strategy; and recording videos (like Tirean, raven and everyone in Factions' early days).

Regarding the steampunk thing, I'm not really digging the floating metal platforms, but the varied character designs and idle animations are really cool. I think the real weakness is the name; "Aerena: Clash of Champions" is so generic.

The Aerena community is small, but I guess it's big enough for the beta phase. It has at least one person becoming well-known for dominating the competition; writing a guide and discussing design and strategy; and recording videos (like Tirean, raven and everyone in Factions' early days).

Regarding the steampunk thing, I'm not really digging the floating metal platforms, but the varied character designs and idle animations are really cool. I think the real weakness is the name; "Aerena: Clash of Champions" is so generic.

Hehe, I am actually thinking it's a throwback to League of Legend's subtitle name, Clash of Fates (which no one ever knows, and they dont use it anymore, only beta players would recognize it). Since they are trying to follow LoL's f2p model, im guessing they borrowed something else too xD

The best thing about AErena are the devs. They're constantly active, especially their community manager, and constantly playing everyday. The winner of the first alpha season, was given the opportunity to make his very own unit idea in the game (he named it after his wife, and it's coming pretty soon). But it's been my experience, that indie devs are either really awesome, or never interact with their fans at all bc they are so swamped ^^

I think the real weakness is the name; "Aerena: Clash of Champions" is so generic.

Hehe, talking about names, imagine how "Banner Saga" would feel to someone who (1) was plagued by online-advertizing, (2) was familiar with games likes Candy Crush Saga! Luckily none of the above applied to me, so I never noticed anything weird about the title (I am not a native speaker either, so subconscious nomenclature issues rarely bother me)

Originally Posted by roder

(a)The winner of the first alpha season, was given the opportunity to make his very own unit idea in the game...
(b)...indie devs are either really awesome, or never interact with their fans at all bc they are so swamped ^^

(a) That is actually a pretty awesome idea! It would have also been cool as a KS reward. I think Stoic only game Godstone & Item designs to backers.
(b) True!

Thanks for the heads up, loveboof! I was following this game, but hadn't noticed this "update" from GAMESCON 2014 (yet). I definitely like it; the full-3D/CG is not a "must" for me (I much prefer hand-drawn graphics), but the world/theme feels right...

Divinity: Original Sin was good and now Wasteland 2 is around the corner which should be excellent. I tried the early access of Invisble Inc. which is promising to be a really interesting TBS tactics game I can recommend.

For less story and more hack'n'slash I play Strife. which is the first MOBA-type game I've managed to draw any type of enjoyment from. They have done away with a lot of the redundant (imo) mechanics and the game is better for it. It is free in open beta at the moment, if you want to try it out feel free to use my referral link: https://strife.com/create?raf=4ST3URTM which will give us both some goodies if you sign up and play.